Whaling, with oil the prize, first industry for the South Australian Company from start of colony to the 1850s

Deep-sea whaling ships sought the faster sperm whales while South Australia's shore-based stations harvested southern right bay whales.
Image courtesy South Australian Maritime Museum

Whaling was an industry in bloody full force on Kangaroo Island well before South Australia was settled as a European province.

Profits from whaling encouraged the South Australian Company to quickly send out its ships, the Duke of York and Lady Mary Pelham, carrying the first colonists. After leaving their passengers on Kangaroo Island, both vessels went to Hobart Town to be refitted as whalers. Other company emigrant ships, the South Australian and Solway, were involved with whaling until wrecked at Encounter Bay in an 1837 gale.

The John Pirie made several trips bringing whaling hands from Hobart to Encounter Bay where the company had its whaling station.

In 1837, 40 whales were seen at one time off Glenelg. A year later, the Register newspaper reported on the colony’s second cargo of oil and whalebone going for England in the Goshawk.

Generally, deep-sea whaling ships sought the faster sperm whales and the shore-based stations harvested southern right bay whales. A report by Hart, Hagen & Baker noted 30 foreign whaling ships in South Australian waters in 1841.

More than 15 South Australian whaling depots or lookouts from that era have been identified.

The South Australian Company set up whaling stations on Thistle Island and Sleaford Bay near Port Lincoln. But, with whales becoming scarce, they soon closed. The station at Fishery Bay near Cape Jervis lasted until 1855 with several different owners. Other sites were at Cape Buffon (south east), Onkaparinga, Hog Bay (Kangaroo Island), Port Collinson and Sceale Bay (near Streaky Bay) and Spalding Cove (near Port Lincoln). Whaling ships visited Port Lincoln at the start and end of the season to take in food, water and wood.

The two best known shore-based stations were at Encounter Bay in 1837. Captain John Blenkinsop's was the first on Granite Island. The South Australian Company, managed by Samuel Stephens, was at Rosetta Head (the Bluff). Stephens rejected Blenkinsop's suggestion that they work cooperatively, as in Tasmania. So, when a whale was sighted, boats from both stations raced to intercept the animal.

To resolve the conflicts, the South Australian parliament passed an act to regulate and protect whale fisheries in 1839.

The local shore-based whalers were indignant that the foreign ships with their more modern and faster boats could come in and take the whales from their bay. In 1840, four French and American whalers were offshore and, in 1841, 30 ships were reported between Kangaroo Island and Cape Leeuwin.

By 1855, shore-based whaling was abandoned. The discovery of petroleum products in the 1860s meant whale oil was no longer such a cheap fuel. Some whaling ships still cruised the seas between Kangaroo Island and Cape Northumberland.

An attempt was made to revive the industry at Encounter Bay in 1871-72 with boats manned by Aboriginal men. At the end of the second season, only one whale had been caught.